A note on the words: an osteria is the plain, neighborly end of Italian dining, and cena is simply Italian for dinner, which is why the set courses here are called CenaA, CenaB and CenaSP. Antipasto is the plate of small things you eat before the pasta. A highball is whisky and soda, the standard Japanese long drink. Nishi-Azabu is a district of Tokyo.
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Osteria Totto on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, Hangover Meshi here. This time to the Italian restaurant “Osteria Totto” in Nishi-Azabu. I had been curious about it for a while. Lately I have been hooked on Italian, French and Spanish food rather than Japanese or Chinese. I booked a course this time as well, so I was very much looking forward to seeing what would come out. The place is down a back alley in Nishi-Azabu. It sits on what is either the first basement floor or a half-basement, and it really does feel like a hideaway. The surroundings are quiet, which is nice — you can eat in peace.
I cannot say quite why, ha, but the other customers had a certain low-profile air about them, ha.
Five courses, CenaA: 6,600 yen
Seven courses, CenaB: 8,800 yen
Ten courses, CenaSP: 12,100 yen
There are three courses: five, seven and ten dishes. Each one also comes in a version with all-you-can-drink for 2,500 yen more.
You do not often get free-flow drinks at a stylish place like this, so having the option is welcome!
Well, ten dishes was more than I could eat, so I booked the seven-course plan with the drinks included.
One thing to note, though: there is a table charge of 550 yen per person on top!
Right then, I ordered a highball to start and the course began.
The ten-piece antipasto plate. A plate that lets you eat a little of many things like this is always a pleasure!
Amberjack carpaccio, meat and potato baked in pastry, marinated shrimp, Italian meatballs, ham — a whole range of flavors. There is a fair wait before the next dish arrives after this, but with this much on the plate it is plenty! Or rather, antipasti like these are best enjoyed slowly, a bit at a time, alongside a drink. Partway through I switched to white wine.
The aroma is remarkable. A mushroom potage, I think?
The first pasta. Spaghetti in a snow crab cream sauce.
Crab and cream do go together, do they not. It is a single mouthful-sized portion, so it goes down quickly.
This one is the meat pasta. Two pastas! You do get fairly full. Ragu sauce with wide ribbons of pasta.
And then grilled Spanish mackerel, I think. Moist, beautifully cooked fish — delicious!
It depends on the restaurant, of course, but it happens quite often that the fish course is far better than the meat main.
So when a place offers both fish and meat in a course, I often go for the double-main version, and here too the fish was very good.
Lamb chop! Just salt, brushed on, letting the flavor of the meat come through — delicious!
Cake and ice cream for dessert, then coffee, and that was that.
I thought this was a good place, with a very casual feel and casual Italian food to match! In the second half I was ordering wine one after another! There are not many slightly upscale Italian places where you can order away like that on an all-you-can-drink plan! I came away thinking this is a place I would like to use again for a small dinner with company, or for meeting friends I have not seen in a while.
Osteria Totto (Italian / Nogizaka Station, Roppongi Station, Azabu-juban Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.3
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
